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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Former Las Vegas-area Democratic politician gets minimum 28 years for
killing reporter
By Associated Press
Updated:
3:52 PM EDT, Wed October 16, 2024
Source: AP
A former Las Vegas-area Democratic elected official was sentenced
Wednesday to serve at least 28 years in Nevada state prison for killing
an investigative journalist who wrote articles critical of his conduct
in office two years ago and exposed an intimate relationship with a
female coworker.
A judge invoked sentencing enhancements for use of a deadly weapon and
the age of the reporter to add eight years to the minimum 20-year
sentence that after finding Robert Telles guilty of first-degree
murder.
“The judge couldn’t sentence him to any more time,” Clark County
District Attorney Steve Wolfson said after telling reporters the
sentence represented justice for the community. “She gave him the
maximum.”
Telles, 47, testified in his defense at trial, denying he stabbed Las
Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German to death in September 2022.
But evidence against him was strong — including his DNA beneath
German’s fingernails.
Telles was the administrator of a county office that handles unclaimed
estate and probate cases when he was arrested and jailed without bail
several days after German’s murder. He was stripped of his elected
position weeks later.
Standing in shackles before the judge on Wednesday, Telles offered
“deepest condolences” to German’s family but again denied
responsibility for the reporter’s death.
“I understand the desire to seek justice and hold somebody
accountable for this,” he said. “But I did not kill Mr. German.”
Prosecutor Pamela Weckerly told the judge that evidence showed Telles
killed German because “he didn’t like what Mr. German had written
about him. He felt that Mr. German had cost him an elected position.”
“This type of violence, this sort of political violence,” the
prosecutor said, “is unacceptable and dangerous for a community as a
whole.”
Telles’ defense attorney, Robert Draskovich, asked for leniency for
Telles and told the judge that Telles intends to appeal his conviction.
After sentence was pronounced, Draskovich withdrew as Telles’ defense
lawyer.
“The sentence was not surprising,” Draskovich said outside court.
“We fulfilled our defense obligation. We parted on good terms.
(Telles) preserved all his rights for appeal.”
German was 69. He was a respected reporter who spent in Las Vegas.
Telles lost his primary for a second term in office after German’s
stories in May and June 2022 described turmoil and bullying at the
Clark County Public Administrator/Guardian office and a romantic
relationship between Telles and a female employee. His law license was
suspended following his arrest.
Police sought public help to identify a person captured on neighborhood
security video driving a maroon SUV and walking while wearing a broad
straw hat that hid his face and an oversized orange long-sleeve shirt.
Weckerly showed the jury footage of the person wearing orange slipping
into the side yard where German was stabbed, slashed and left dead.
At Telles’ house, police found a maroon SUV and cut-up pieces of a
straw hat and a gray athletic shoe that looked like those worn by the
person seen on video. Authorities did not find the orange shirt or a
murder weapon.
Telles testified for several rambling hours at his trial, admitting for
the first time that reports of the office romance were true. He said he
was “framed” for the crime by a broad conspiracy involving a real
estate company, police, DNA analysts, former co-workers and others. He
told the jury he was victimized for crusading to root out corruption.
Wolfson and prosecutors at trial dismissed those claims as
unbelievable.
“The jury squarely and soundly rejected all of that,” Weckerly said
at sentencing. She called Telles’ accounts ”hollow claims.”
Other evidence against Telles was strong. Prosecutor Christopher Hamner
told the jury that Telles blamed German for destroying his career,
ruining his reputation and threatening his marriage.
Telles told the jury he took a walk and went to a gym at the time
German was killed. But evidence showed Telles’ wife sent text
messages to him about the same time killed asking, “Where are you?”
Prosecutors said Telles left his cellphone at home so he couldn’t be
tracked.
The jury deliberated nearly 12 hours over three days before finding
Telles guilty. The panel heard pained sentencing hearing testimony from
German’s brother and two sisters, along with emotional pleas for
leniency from Telles’ wife, ex-wife and mother, before deciding that
Telles could be eligible for parole.
Clark County District Court Judge Michelle Leavitt was able to consider
sentencing enhancements adding up to eight years to Telles’ sentence
for using a deadly weapon in a willful, deliberate, premeditated
killing because German was older than 60 years old.
“This defendant has shown absolutely no remorse, no acceptance of
responsibility,” said Wolfson, the Democratic elected regional
prosecutor. “And in fact, his behavior is such that I believe he is
an extreme danger to the community if he is ever released.”
German was the only journalist killed in the U.S. in 2022, according to
the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. The nonprofit has
records of 17 media workers killed in the U.S. since 1992.
“The sentencing of Robert Telles marks a significant milestone in the
quest for justice,” Katherine Jacobsen, the U.S., Canada, and
Caribbean program coordinator at the committee, said Wednesday in a
statement to The Associated Press. “Although the jailing of Telles
cannot undo Jeff German’s murder, it can act as an important
deterrent to would-be assailants of journalists.”
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